Aluminum rolling mills frequently roll aluminum ingots into very long thin sheets having a thickness of approximately one-quarter inch and a width of between 40 and 60 inches. For handling purposes, the long sheets are formed into coils illustrated in FIG. 1, of approximately 6 to 8 feet in diameter, each weighing upwards of 40,000 lbs. and 50,000 lbs. While still in the coil form the aluminum is frequently passed through one or more annealing furnaces where the aluminum is heated to temperature above 400.degree. F. Frequently the aluminum coils are annealed at temperature of between 450.degree. F. and 1050.degree. F. During the annealing process, the large heavy coils 10 are normally supported on supports that have wide inclined, facing surfaces.
It is common for outer layers of the coils to deform and flatten out or assume the contour of the inclined support surfaces along the periphery of the coils where the coils are in contact with the inclined surfaces of the support tray. It is not unusual for several layers of each coil to be sufficiently deformed that it is necessary to cut the deformed layers from the coiled sheet prior to final shipment to a customer. The removed deformed portion is treated as scrap and sent back to the melting furnace. Such removed deformed portion represents a very significant loss.
Furthermore it is not unusual for the inclined support surfaces of the trays to become scarred and defaced with extended use. Such defacing is frequently imprinted into the outer layer of the coil, requiring that the outer layer be removed as defective.
Several attempts have been made to place various types of padding materials on the tray support surfaces to minimize the scarring and shape deformations. Such attempts have included padding materials such as corrugated cardboard sheets, fiber glass bats (3 lbs/cu.ft.) and hard rubber blocks. However, none of these previous attempts appear to have worked satisfactorily under the harsh conditions.
One of the principle objects and advantages of this invention is to provide a reusable aluminum coil annealing tray support pad that has proven effective to substantially reduce the amount of number of layers that are materially deformed.
These and other objects and advantages will become apparent upon reading the following detailed description of preferred embodiments of the present invention.